Vladimir Putin keeps Kim Jong-un sweet by giving him 24 purebred horses

The delivery of Orlov Trotters to the North Korean leader is a partial payment for artillery shells urgently needed for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Kim Jong-un, pictured with his daughter Ju-ae in 2019, has a passion for riding and Orlov Trotter horses in particular. Picture: The Times

Kim Jong-un has received a consignment of horses from Russia in the latest sign of closeness between the North Korean leader and Vladimir Putin.

According to an announcement by the veterinary authorities in Primorsky Krai – a region of the Russian Far East that has a rail connection with North Korea – 24 horses were transported across the land border last Sunday.

The horses, including 19 stallions and five mares, are Orlov Trotters, known to be Kim’s favourite breed and the horse he is pictured riding in propaganda images put out by his regime. Thirty of the breed were also sent to North Korea in 2022.

South Korean media has reported that they were in part payment for North Korean artillery shells sent to Moscow for use against Ukraine.

In June Putin and Kim signed a “comprehensive partnership agreement” committing Russia and North Korea to military co-operation.

Later that month, the North Korean leader gifted Putin a pair of Pungsan dogs, a local breed, according to state media KCNA. In August the Russian president sent Kim 447 goats.

Ironically for a country that has notoriously developed its own nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, North Korea is also investing in one of the world’s oldest military technologies with a network of equestrian military units.

Official trade reports showed the country spent at least $US600,000 on thoroughbred horses imported from Russia between 2020 and 2023.

However, their value to Kim is primarily symbolic. Horses play an important part in the personality cult that the “Young General” has created around himself and his family.

State media has shown him as a child riding alongside his late father, Kim Jong-il, and in 2018 with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and sister, Kim Yo-jong, through the snow on North Korea’s sacred mountain, Mt Paektu.

South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo uncharitably described Kim and his wife as “looking like a pair of tubby elves from Lord of the Rings”.

In February, state media showed Kim and his young daughter, Ju-ae, believed by some to be his designated heir, riding on the Orlov Trotters during the military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army.

The museum of the country’s most important equestrian centre, the Mirim Horse Riding Club, contains displays recording 386 occasions when Kim went riding.

The club also displays sayings by the North Korean leader, setting out the importance of equestrianism, including:

“Horses may no longer be used in war, but the war horse is important from the perspective that they display the military’s greatness”.

The Times